Computer viruses have become far more insidious in recent months! My family and I have been personally affected 3 times in the last 6 months! Many of these, while they are new, seem to be able to sneak by many anti-virus software mechanisms and appear to be specifically targeting the mortgage and real estate industries.

THREAT #1: This seems to be a particularly nasty one recently that has targeted participants in the mortgage and real estate industry. Beware ANY email that comes to you from “Postal Support”, “Postal Manager”, “UPS Support”, “UPS Manager” or anything similar. The subject line will be something along the lines of “UPS Delivery Problem NR 123456 (any number)”.

This virus is purported, once infected, to capture the names in your contact list and will then broadcast the same email to the members of that list, thus potentially infecting all of those individuals, if they attempt to open the attachment.

Another recognition factor in these viruses is that they all seem to have an attachment and that attachment is a “Zip file” (recognizable by what looks like a small file cabinet being held by a screw clamp… see left).

Threat #2:  Another suspect (which is the one that got me) targets those in the mortgage industry who might be job searching (that would be a sizable chunk of our collective industries over the last 3 years!). This one appears to come from an individual such as “Sean McDonald (any name, really)” and the subject line is “Arlington Heights (Your city) Job Message”. The email itself appears safe, but there are a number of links within the body of the message that will take you to a “Job Board” website. Two of the infections that occurred in my house are a direct result of visiting one of these sites through the email. The resulting infection will open multitudes of reoccurring “Anti-Virus” search/software requests that seem to multiply over time, freezing you out of using your computer!

Suffice to say… if you receive ANY email from even a marginally trusted source, do not open it… ESPECIALLY if it has an attachment… and ESPECIALLY if that attachment is a zip file!!!

Please feel free to contact me through the channel you read this in, if you’d like more information based on my personal experiences.

March 31, 2010 is the scheduled end to the Fed’s multi-trillion $$ purchase of Mortgage Backed Securities!!  While the exact impact is uncertain, most economists expect rates to increase, at least on a temporary basis.  There’s a nice explanation in the Think Big Work Small video below…

TBWS Daily Monday March 15, 2010

A valuable mortgage tool to help troubled homeowners has been extended!  See video below…

According to statistics from Fannie Mae, “more than 329,000 loans have been delivered to Fannie Mae through the Refi Plus flexibilities.  Of those loans, more than 100,000 were refinanced under the HARP with loan-to-value ratios between 80% and 125%!!

My question is:  How many of those loans had LTV’s between 100% and 125%?  They must have all been done by the existing servicer of the loan, since I have yet to find a lender who will go above 100% LTV on a loan coming in from another lender.

Regardless… this is welcome news to existing mortgage holders and mortgage originators!

View this video by clicking here and, from the perspective of the lender, what do you think is the most financially beneficial course of action… helping the homeowner out with a loan modification OR pushing them into a short sale???

The numbers proposed in this video are purported to be true!  If that is the case, we have yet another reason to be very angry with the government and the structure of their “bailout” plan!!

Thoughts?  Opinions?

Its when the people come to you for a mortgage and say, “I would like to do (insert home wish here). Can you help me?” That’s the puzzle that they need help figuring out, and I love that part of the game. What’s your spot? Click “play” below.

In recent weeks, I have discussed the glut of new guidelines and their effect on the consumer’s mortgage application.  I have also discussed some of the adverse effects that credit cards and their rule changes have had on the consumer’s flexibility in obtaining a mortgage.  Well… there are a few new changes that are coming that actually might benefit the consumer and there’s actually been a bit of advance notice, for once.

There will be some key changes that you can look forward to from your credit card company and they will be enacted on February 22, 2010.

Two of the biggest changes to expect are:

• You must be notified within 45 days prior to any increase in interest rate.
• There must be some form of disclosure as to how long it will take you to pay off your balance, given certain payments made.

There will be more changes occurring in August of 2010… I’ll go into those in the future.

If you’d like to read more about some of the changes coming on February 22, please click here.  This will lead you to the website for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Have a great day!

This news came across my desk yesterday evening (Jan. 14, 2010).  WE’RE HALF-WAY HOME, PEOPLE!!!

Read the article from Realty Times here:  HVCC Demise???

It’s not time to do the Happy Dance yet, but we can at least go out and shop for some shoes!

As we have explored in an earlier post, one of the basic rules of improving your credit score is to NOT close a credit card account when you pay it off.  This process applies to the “Credit Saturation” threshold that we’ve previously investigated.  This is a procedure that I try to impress upon all of the borrowers that refinance and use proceeds to pay off credit cards.

Well… the banks have caught on and are now beginning to see profits dwindle as consumers no longer want to be saddled with credit card balances, and have now compensated by creating new fees.

As unpleasant as opening the mail might be for some individuals, you must do so with a renewed awareness now.  Within those mailings, whether they be statements or addendums to your contract with the company, you must be vigilant of the following:

• Items you may have already seen…
  • Increased interest rates
  • Increased minimum payments
  • Increased fees for exceeding your limit
  • Increased penalty fees for late pays (be very careful in reading your contract… some companies can increase your rate if you make a payment late at ANOTHER company!!)
• NEW charges that you may be seeing soon…
  • Annual fees on cards that might have previously not had an annual fee
  • Inactivity fees on cards you hold, but don’t use
  • Processing fees (basically a junk fee disguised as a fee for sending out a paper statment)

To sum this all up… OPEN your mail… STUDY your statements for changes and anything out of the ordinary or different from what you signed up for… OPT OUT of any changes that are being proposed, if given the option (you may have to search for the ability to opt out)… CALL your provider and verbally negotiate out of the changes… if all else fails, go to one of the credit card resources such as www.lowcards.com to find a replacement card.

IMPORTANT:  If you are forced to replace a card that just will not give you what you want, DO NOT close the existing card prior to opening the new account!  This will almost certainly result in a credit score hit.  Additionally… DO NOT replace more than one card in a 60-90 day period of time.  Also, DO NOT do anything that will result in an additional inquiry to your credit… applying, en masse, to a number of credit card companies WILL result in inquiries!  Do your homework first and apply to one company at a time!

As always… please feel free to contact me should you have any questions or comments.

Happy New Year and good morning!

sim⋅pli⋅fy
/ˈsɪmpləˌfaɪ/ [sim-pluh-fahy]
–verb (used with object), -fied, -fy⋅ing.
to make less complex or complicated; make plainer or easier: to simplify a problem.

Welcome to the first business day of the newest chapter in RESPA “reform”… the introduction of the new and “improved” Good Faith Estimate (GFE), HUD I form and Truth In Lending disclosure. To be honest… through all the webinars, all of the printed material, all of the conference calls and all the flyers we have experienced, there is still a lot of fog surrounding these new documents, what is required and how it will be implemented! It also seems that each lender has their own spin on how the regulation is to be interpreted and what will be required of the broker (and borrower).  Just this past Friday, I received a 62 page training deck to prepare for a 1.5 hour webinar this Tuesday (a day after day one!)

“The proposed Good Faith Estimate (GFE) is lengthy, complex, and cannot be easily compared by a borrower with the HUD-1 Settlement Statement at closing to determine whether the actual costs exceed the estimate provided at the time of the loan application.”

“The proposed GFE contains terminology that conflicts with other disclosures consumers receive under the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which will add to the borrower’s confusion during the loan application process.

“HUD’s proposed new GFE and mortgage application process would overlap and conflict with the broader federal mortgage regulatory framework under TILA and ECOA, which would further add to the borrower’s confusion.” — quote from David Stevens,  current Assistant Secretary for Housing/FHA Commissioner before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Financial Services.

I will be doing my best, this week, to gather as much information as I can to relay the concrete aspects of these changes and how they will be affecting borrowers and Realtors.

Suffice to say, at this early date… be prepared for a bit of confusion and, as usual in our industry, changes of this magnitude can potentially result in delays in the processing and closing of loans.

Stay tuned.